To be honest, when Gawain first thought of forming an intelligence network based on middle- and low-level people, the first thing he thought of was not the thugs, thieves, and gangsters who wandered in the slums and back alleys, but the people that Byron Knight knew. Mercenary friend.
Knight Byron became a monk halfway. In his early years, he was a well-known mercenary leader who was active in the southern region. He had a small team and a wide network of connections. Gawain knew this, and he also knew that The opportunity for Knight Byron to swear allegiance to the Cecil family was a major setback in his mercenary career. It is said that he lost all his subordinates in that setback and almost died himself. Now that he is no longer a mercenary, he has obtained the status of a nobleman and become a knight by virtue of his personal strength and years of loyal service, but none of his connections back then have disappeared.
Rather, it is precisely because a mercenary entered the circle of nobles by chance that Knight Byron became more popular in the mercenary circle. No one would refuse the opportunity to establish a relationship with the nobles, even The declining aristocratic family is also a big money maker for the mercenaries who are in urgent need of business.
Gawain borrowed the mercenary connections of Knight Byron for several operations in the southern border, including the process of spreading news, recruiting refugees, and attracting business travelers. Those mercenaries were indispensable in the process of building an intelligence network. In the end, she chose to let Amber contact her "hunters and dog friends" back then.
He considered it from many aspects: First of all, in terms of loyalty, mercenaries and slum gangsters are almost the same. Their loyalty is based on money. In comparison, the "loyalty" of gangsters is even stronger. In order to be cheaper; secondly, in terms of well-informed, mercenaries are not as good as those "gutter rats", who hang out at the bottom of society, they need to be more discerning to survive, and they themselves are the source of information for many mercenaries; finally, One thing that is very unreliable about mercenaries is that the best of them are almost always inextricably linked with nobles, and some senior mercenaries have even secretly become the shadows and informants of certain nobles In the world, the eagle dogs that can be secretly supported by the nobles themselves are the targets of many mercenaries, and the slum gangsters who are opposite to them... They cannot be seen by the nobles, all of them are "independent bodies".
For Gao Wen, who needed to build a "clean" team, those gutter rats that would not belong to any faction were obviously more in line with his requirements.
As for those people's ability, discipline, obedience, loyalty, etc., they can be cultivated slowly. Knight Byron is an obvious example. An upright... oh no, honesty... oh no, fair... Hasn't he also become a business-savvy joker
Gao Wen didn't know what Amber's past was like. He was not a person who liked to inquire about other people's private affairs. He only knew that although this half-elf thief was not strong in combat, he was a full-fledged shadow master. She used to hang around in Old Cecil The gutters and back alleys in the collar, but there was never much movement except that he finally got into the Cecil family's ancestral grave and was caught on the spot, but he had a chat with Pittman three days ago before he learned that It turns out that Amber, who seems to be just a joke, once had a troubled life.
In other words, before Cecil was appointed to commit crimes, she had been living a life of committing crimes...
After realizing this, he did not hesitate to throw out this half-elf who spends her days in the territory, messing around with nothing to do, and has a huge appetite, and asked her to do some work as a lord's guard.
In another town north of Tanzania Township, Leslie, the "Black Whistle" tavern is brightly lit, and the gangsters, thugs, thieves and crooks who are in it are starting a new round of all-night booze. Day after day of booze they drank until the incoming silver and coppers were spent.
The tavern owner "Scarface Anton" with an ugly scar on his face sat behind the potholed bar counter, carelessly wiping the cup in his hand with a dirty rag, but his eyes were unrelentingly looking at the villains who were drinking and shouting. He doesn't mind people drinking and making trouble in his tavern, and he doesn't even mind that these people smash things here when they fight, but if someone drinks and smashes things and doesn't pay the bill, then He didn't mind much.
The tavern was filled with an unpleasant smell, low-quality and cheap alcohol, moldy wood and corners, and the smell of sweat from not taking a bath for a long time mixed together, making the environment here extremely harsh, but no one wanted to leave this place, at least here Warm, better than the ice and snow outside.
Two more drunk men started to make a fuss, tearing each other into a ball, Anton gave a signal with his eyes, and immediately two strong men stepped forward and kicked the two drunk men who were making trouble, and then Drag it to the corner and let them make trouble on their own.
That's the routine for these gutter rats.
They are "rich households" in the slums, scum and reptiles in the eyes of nobles, intelligence dealers in the eyes of mercenaries, and "villains" in the eyes of peaceful and honest commoners. For example, the half-bucket of stealth skills, the knack of juggling with one or two hands, the natural strength of one arm, or just being flexible enough to fool people to death with their mouths. The mercenaries or merchants have some connections, relying on deceitful abduction or selling information to survive.
But these people never accumulate money, and although each of their "businesses" earns more coins than half a year's income of the pauper, they always spend it quickly, because they often work with servants. They deal with soldiers and are not liked by the lords. They know one thing very well: life is impermanent, enjoy yourself in time, and you can’t tell when the mercenary who bought your information has suffered a loss outside and will kill you when he comes back. Venting anger is the same even if your information is true.
The lord will not protect them in this situation.
So they carpe diem, in this cheap, filthy tavern that no one but gutter rats want to patronize, until dawn every time, and if one day they find that there's one less boozer in the tavern And when the man wasn't in town, they would laugh loudly and say, "Hush, another poor fellow!"
Scarface Anton threw the cup in his hand under the bar, counted the people in the tavern, and turned to ask the guy next to him: "Why didn't the old cripple come?"
The guy shook his head: "I don't know, I haven't been here for two days, I heard he was hacked to death."
Anton with the scarred face frowned, and his ugly facial features trembled even more ugly, but before he could speak, a short figure in a cloak approached the bar suddenly, and a few copper coins fell on him in front of him with a tinkling sound. A low female voice came from below: "Rye wine."
When did this person show up? !
Anton with the scarred face trembled in his heart. He clearly knew everyone who would come to this tavern, and he himself was a half-baked "stalker" who knew some shadow skills, but this stranger in front of him appeared quietly in front of him. In front of the bar, he and his buddy had no memory of how this guy appeared!
But astonished astonished, he still calmly filled a glass of low-quality rye wine, and when passing the glass over, he sneaked a look under the hood, only to find that there was only an indissoluble shadow shrouded in it .
Play tricks.
Anton raised his vigilance, and calmly motioned the buddy to confirm the movement outside the gate, but just as the buddy took a step, the man in the cloak spit out all the ale he drank. It was big enough, as if she was afraid that people would not notice, she slammed the glass on the bar counter after spitting out the wine: "You used to mix wine with water, now you have started to mix wine with water, right? Believe it or not, I smashed your place!"
The people in the tavern seemed to be drinking and messing around, but everyone had sharp ears and eyes. In an instant, almost everyone noticed the movement next to the bar counter, and those who were familiar with the "rules" immediately realized that someone was coming to make trouble up.
What happened next happened in an instant: all the people near the bar almost teleported to the distance, everyone picked up their cups and food and found the best place to watch the show, and the scammers began to hide in the nearby Gambling is played on the table, and the thieves are hurrying to find out who can start.
Anton slowly threw the rag and cup aside, moved his strong shoulders slightly, but he was relieved in his heart: it would be much easier if he was just here to mess things up.
Fist will teach such a lifeless guy how to behave.
And the short figure in the cloak in front of him raised his hand and pulled down the hood that originally covered his face, revealing a half-elf face.
Anton looked at this face, raised his arms to make his chest muscles swell, and an ugly smile appeared on his scarred face: "Sister, I will show you a chest crushing boulder, do you want to see it..."
People in the tavern who are preparing to watch the excitement: "..."
Amber glared at the bald ugly man: "... why the hell are you more shameless than before?!"
"After showing off my muscles, I found out that the opponent couldn't fight. How should I admit that I am not so embarrassed? You told us about this specifically back then." The smile on Anton's face became brighter or more ugly, "Elder Sister Head! It's really you! Where have you been all these years?!"
At this time, the people in the tavern seemed to have finally recovered from their stupefaction. Whispering voices began to sound from all directions. Some of them clearly recognized who the person standing in front of the bar was. Some were surprised, some were in awe, but without exception, they all quickly became excited and excited, while the rest were obviously confused. What happened to the half-elves that popped up? Most of these people are newcomers who have only been active here in the past two years.
Amber's pointed ears trembled, and she turned her head and glanced at it with a half-smile: "There are a lot of newcomers, almost half of them don't know me anymore."
Anton whispered beside him: "You have been away from here for several years..."
"Alright, then let the newcomers get to know each other," Amber yawned, raised her hand and snapped her fingers, "I'm sober now! Little bastards!"